The
Courageous Story of
Zosine Emilienne Verstraeten-Lafili and "her
nephews"

Based
on research by Kamiel Mertens

Written by: Jane Knox-Kiepura

All I knew about Zosine Lafili up until
early 2006
was that there was a Mr. and Mrs. Verstraeten of No. 80 Kwakkelstraat
in
Turnhout Belgium who had hidden allied airmen, (sometime afterwards
this became
No 84). This information I knew from an undated photograph of the
couple in the
Knox -family album and from my father's recollections written fifty
years later.Here he described her as
being "in her late 30s or early 40s.She was quite tall and on the thin
side.Her husband was a soldier in the
Belgian army and had been a pow in a German camp. Mme Lafili was a city
woman,
she was intelligent, kind and had a good sense of humour.She was a fluent French speaker, although
Turnhout was very much a Flemish town..."

Kamiel
Mertens
decided to
leave no stone unturned in his quest to find out what had become of
Mrs.
Verstraeten.He left a letter in every
letterbox in Kwakkelstraat (street) in the hope that somebody might
have some
recollection.A week later he was
rewarded with a phone call from Mrs. Verstraeten's former neighbour.The neighbour had been a teenager in 1944 and
remembers how she would see young men arriving through the back doors
("my
nephews" according to Mrs. Verstraeten). She recognized the back of the
house from the picture.With the
knowledge this was the correct person and place - Kamiel was able to
research
the archives of the Town of Turnhout.He eventually found her full name -- Zosine
Emilienne Verstraeten-Lafili. Kamiel now got to work in all the
historic and
post war archives, document centres and Fund for Social Security (the
actual
name of an older institution "Ministerie van Wederopbouw") - a special
Fund
relating to the Resistance Movement established immediately after the
war to
reimburse and give official status as "members of the armed resistance"
for the
costs incurred for shelter, food, medical supplies, clothes,
documentation, and
transportation for the individuals they had rescued.

Zosine
Emilienne Lafili was born in Leuven
on 17th
November 1902 to Jean-Gustave Lafili and Marie-Louise Willems.On July 22 1927 she married François
Verstraeten in Leuven.We have not established yet when they moved
to Turnhout.By 1940 Corporal
Verstraeten, a soldier in the Belgian Army, was a POW in Germany.

It
would appear from the records that Mrs. Verstraeten-Lafili was a
housekeeper
for a Turnhout family active in the resistance.They had rescued an airman (Kleinman) and had asked Zosine to hide him
at her home in Kwakkelstraat 80.Upon
further research it is undoubtedly the same Theodore Kleinman from the
349th
Squadron who joined the 100th Group and who stated after his return
"the
bail-out occurred about 10 miles SSE of Turnhout, Belgium and
continues:"After contacting an
underground unit I
was placed in a house in Turnhout..." (see notes available on web).

22-23
Apr 1944 - Believed to have crashed near the Belgian/Dutch frontier.
According
to W. R. Chorley's book "Royal Air
Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1944" there is
a
Sgt W. Lynch who was "arrested while being hidden at Antwerp".This could well be the same Sgt Lynch- see
also Reg Brookes.

Sgt
Lynch was looked after by Mr. Leemans in Geel - husband of Mrs. Jeanne
Leemans-Schlesser.Information to be
confirmed.

John
Maunsell went to Mr. Martin (member of Resistance)- Ravelsche Steenweg 13 in Ravels.

He
was hidden at Kwakkelstraat from June 22 - July 12 1944

The following 10 airmen went
from Turnhout to Brussels
via Zosine Lafili and her Resistance
colleague Albert Gevers from MOL, to Mr. De Meyer No 2BB/16/111/22? -
living at
Victoriestraat 102 inBrussels.The airmen were handed over at the "Grande Place"
in Laeken which is a suburb of Brussels
(home of
the RoyalCastle).

27-28 May 1944
from
Skipton-on-Swale - crashed at Oostham-Langven (Limburg), 6 km WSW of
Leopoldsburg, Belgium
he had been helped by Co. Neels earlier on

Also
on aircraft
- F/O R A Irwin RCAF (KIA);
Sgt W G
Wakely RCAF (KIA); Sgt G F Freeman RCAF (KIA); F/O W J Elliott RCAF
(evd); Sgt
M Muir RAF (evaded until captured and held in St.Gilles Prison.
Abandoned by
the guards 12 Sep 44 he escaped].F/S
Poppa RCAF pow [was
interned in Camp
L7, PoW No.126); Mallett (see above) Funeral services for the three who
died
were held on 30th May at St-Truiden; their remains have since been
taken to
Heverlee War Cemetery.

22-23 Apr 1944
from Grimsby,
believed to have
crashed near the Belgian/Dutch frontier.Note:Reg Brookes was hidden with
Peter Knox by the Sterckx family in Geel prior to moving to Turnhout.Those killed were buried at Antwerpen-Deurne.
They have been subsequently re- interred in the SchoonselhofCemetery.
Sgt Lynch was arrested whilst being hidden at Antwerp. Also on the aircraft: P/O
W.J.Shaw
(KIA); Sgt W.H.Lynch (PoW); F/S K.Morgan RAAF (PoW); F/S R.Brookes
(Evd); Sgt
J.Ensor (KIA); P/O G.H.Williams (KIA); Sgt R.A.Bacon (PoW) - was
interned in
Camps L6/357. PoW No.3696 with F/S.K.Morgan, PoW No.3656. Sgt Lynch was
sheltered until captured 6 Jun44 with the Cannaerts family in Heultje, (Brussels or Antwerp?).Interned
in CampL7. PoW No.122. The two ladies
of the
Cannaerts family still have his uniform and in April 1998 made a
request for
his whereabouts.

Radar Navigator on B-17
Pathfinder
aircraft 42-97564 from the 100 Bomber Group / 418 Bomber Squadron (some
records
also show this aircraft to be known as the Belle of Berlin). T/o Thorpe
Abbotts, Norfolk.
Merseburg
raid --
aircraft lost due to Flak on 20 July 1944; crash landed Leuven, Belgium.

He was hidden at
Kwakkelstraat from August 12-August 14 1944

6) Sgt. Daniel
Cargile 38372191 USAAF (MACR
7414)

Left Waist Gunner
on B-17
Pathfinder aircraft 42-97564 from the 100 Bomber Group / 418 Bomber
Squadron
(some records also show this aircraft to be known as the Belle of
Berlin). T/o
Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolk.
Merseburg
raid --
aircraft lost due to Flak on 20 July 1944; crash landed Leuven, Belgium.

It
is likely that Peter
Knox
actually met Griffis and Cargile in August 1944 as they would have been
together from August 12 to August 14 and helped translate French for
them - he
refers to meeting two US airmen from the Flying Fortress who were being
hidden
at 80 Kwakkelstraat - Among the many Resistance contacts were Jules
Theodore
Lafili, Avenue de la Toison d'or 23 in Brussels. He was Mrs.
Verstraeten's brother.He also hid many
airmen and worked with the
other members of the Resistance.

According
to records in the Brussels Archives, Zosine Verstraeten-Lafili not only
helped allied
escaped airmen, she assisted in the escape of Belgian nationals from
German
labour camps and was active in passing information on bombardments
related to
the allied command centres including disruption to communications, road
and
rail.

Zosine
transferred falsified documents including id-cards and work permits for
members
of the resistance and escaping airmen. She would pick up these
falsified
documents from the home of Mr. De Meyer in Victoriestraat 102 Brussels.She was able to hand over these documents to a
member of the Arendonck Resistance Group - these were witnessed by R.
Donders.

Zosine
Verstraeten Lafili was officially honoured by allied governments for
the work
she had done with the Resistance.She
received the following honours;

From the Belgian Government

"Medal
of Armed Resistance"

"Agent
Second Class in Information and Action Services", later upgraded to

Mrs. Lafili worked with her
brother -- Jules Theodore Lafili and
most probably worked with the following Members of the Resistance in Belgium.Mrs. Zosine Lafili acted as the local Chief
of the Resistance Group M.N.B Mouvement Nationale Belge

R. Degroot -- living in
Lindeplein 2 at Moerbeke-Waas (village in East
Flanders)

Renaerts who searched for
fallen airmen - a schoolteacher living in
Retie

The Sterckx-Heyns family in
Geel, including daughter Dimpna and son
Jules -- see separate article

Jacques van Bael - arrested
by the Germans, locked up in the Camp
of Flossenburg Germany
where he died on April 25th 1945.

Josef Verstuyft (Steenweg op
Beerse 3 in
Merksplas)

(The information above was
obtained by Kamiel
Mertens through
different records dating back to 1950).

Both Tweedy and Rae had been
helped by the Nevelsteen Family -- at
Geel-Punt (Antwerpseweg)

Mr. Frans Nevelsteen and his
wife Mrs. Dimphna D'Joos (both were
arrested along with their son Karel and sent to KZ in Germany.Father and son died in the KZ Dora
(Mittelbau-werke V1 and V2) (per Kamiel Mertens
Research).

Tweedy and Rae were also
looked after by Louis S'Jegers and Marcel
and Madeleine Peeters-Driessen of Geel .

There
is written testimony on Zosine Lafili by 2nd Lt Theodore
Kleinman in
the archives in Belgium
praising her courage and intellect and documents "if
anybody in Belgium
should receive a medal, it must be Zosine LAFILI".Kleinman would know as he spent seven weeks
at the home in Kwakkelstraat.

A
communique was directed by President
Dwight D. Eisenhower to "express to Zosine Verstraeten the
gratitude
and appreciation of the American people for gallant service in
assisting the
escape of allied soldiers from the enemy".

I
am sure there is plenty more to say about the courage and heroism of
Zosine
Lafili and those whose lives she saved at the peril of her own - this
is the
information we have available as of February 2010.It also gives a glimpse of those others,
including her brother Jules Theodore Lafili who did so much to save so
many.

Jane
Knox-Kiepura -- June 2013:

All
research submitted by Kamiel Mertens 2005-2006

Addenda
& Errata February 2010

Additional
research into USAAF MACR (Missing Air Crew Reports) by Howard Heeley.